SAP: Relationships key for SAP's chief partner officer Ashley McGibbon

Relationships are key part of SAP Australia and New Zealand (A/NZ) chief partner officer Ashley McGibbon's role, which sees her working with partners on the evolution of SAP's partner program, supporting continuous innovation and faster project implementationSpeaking to Reseller News' sister publication ARN, McGibbon said SAP has brought in a raft of developments under the branding Business Unleashed, including the introduction of SAP Business Data Cloud along with the return of a familiar concept: Business Suite."Business Suite is branding we've used before and it continues to resonate strongly with our customer base," she said. "That's why we've brought it back but this time, it's evolved."As the business brings together its applications through SAP Business Data Cloud, and SAP Business AI, partners become critical to this transformation."We need them to help customers adopt these innovations, bring them to life in their businesses and feed insights back to us," said McGibbon. "They're the ones closest to our customers, here in Australia and New Zealand and around the world."Their role in delivering value and driving innovation forward can't be overstated."Partners to take the lead in their territoriesIn the past, SAP's data strategy has been strong, but enterprises today are facing growing complexity. Over 50 per cent of IT budgets often go toward data and analytics because businesses are focused on getting the right information to the right people to drive better decisions, explained McGibbon."Business Data Cloud addresses that challenge directly," she said. "It gives customers the ability to unify all their data SAP and non-SAP, structured and unstructured into one semantic layer, breaking down silos across the business."With that foundation in place, the potential of AI becomes exponentially more powerful, because the data is harmonised, accessible and actionable."This goes toward SAP's decision to end the service of versions EHP0-5 in 2025 and EHP6-8 in 2027 for its ERP Central Component (ECC) product, with platinum partners like DyFlex Solutions moving customers onto SAP Cloud ahead of the vendor's end of mainstream for its older, on-premises version of ERP systems."What I've seen in the last 12 months, specifically in SAP from a global perspective, is an evolution of the overall partner program," said McGibbon."One of the things that we have done here in A/NZ, which I spoke to ARN about briefly last year was dipping our toe in the water with partner-led territory."We want our partners, like DyFlex, to become more autonomous because they are the ones closest to the ground, to the customer and can offer localised support."Although launched last year, the vendor's Partner-Led Territories program was mainly available in New Zealand."The entire mid-market business in New Zealand essentially became what we call partner-led which means that we want to drive all business through the channel in that market," she said. "It's a huge opportunity for partners and there's no conflict from an SAP direct software perspective at all."McGibbon noted that it worked well in New Zealand which has led to it being rolled out Australia-wide this year."There's been a number of partners that have opted into this new Partner-Led Territories program," she said. "As part of the program, they get both financial and non-financial benefits, which includes enablement. It also includes marketing support [and] digital strategy support."As for support from SAP for the program, McGibbon explained that while it no longer has account executives in those territories anymore, it does have territory ecosystem managers."Their role is to be that bridge between the partner and the customer, so that we are still very much aligned and winning together," she said. "To give you an example, last week, we held our first Partner-Led Territories and digital blitz."Where we work together with partners on a co-demand generation activity that will last for the rest of the quarter, they're in our offices and they're with us."Upskilling and certificationsSAP is also looking to upskill partners with a "huge increase" in enablement and certifications for partners across the board, noted McGibbon."We win better when we are working together and our customers benefit from that as well," she said.The vendor is also driving a massive certification push globally, with new certifications on topics like Business Suite and Business AI.SAP is keen to make sure "partners were ready to deliver these innovations to customers", explained McGibbon."We have run a number of what we're calling tech summits. We go in, one by one, to some of the major strategic partners, the major firms, where we've got to get to their consultants," she said. "They're on projects - they don't have time to come and sit through a partner event."McGibbon also noted that she was seeing a step-change in the overall partner program "giving more autonomy back to partners so that they can take advantage of that opportunity"."In the SME space and in the enterprise space, we are focusing on driving more certification across the board, tech summits to drive enablement [and] more classroom learning to take them through that certification as well, which I'm really excited about, because it's what our customers are asking for," she said.Partner relationshipsWith all these advances in SAP's technology solutions and changes in its partner program, McGibbon is focused on continuing to strengthen the relationship between herself and channel partners."Pretty much every partner will call or text me if there is any issue or concern," she said. "Relationships are critical and we must have a firm interest in how their business is run as well; ... what's in it for them, it's not all about what SAP needs to deliver."A lot of these individuals have built their businesses around [SAP's] strategy, so we have to support them in being successful."It's not dissimilar to McGibbon's own support within SAP, who has been in a variety of roles with the vendor for the last 13 years."I did a business degree a long time ago now, and I was applying for graduate programs. The first graduate program I got accepted into was at IBM," she said. "I started my career at IBM and it was a fantastic environment to begin at the level of training that they gave me. They also were really strong from a diversity perspective.""It gave me an appreciation of how fast things were moving. At first, we were selling hardware servers and then the next minute, we were selling VMware."Then, after a two-year stint at Gartner, she ended up at SAP."The people at SAP are incredibly intelligent. I've moved from selling services in the utilities industry into being presales in the utilities industry; into being part of our original public cloud team, then an account executive and sales management," said McGibbon.Empathy as a leaderHaving had three children, McGibbon said SAP has supported her throughout that return to work repeatedly."I stay here for the people, but I also stay here for the product strategy," she said. "If you have a look at our board appointments now, they are very, very smart people."What I love about [SAP board members] Muhammad Alam, Philipp Herzig [and] Sebastian Steinhauser is that every time they come here to A/NZ, they meet with all our customers, all our partners, and they honestly put their hands out to help and we have direct access to their officers moving forward."It seems like a long way from Germany, but they are very close and we're very lucky to have that."As a "driven person", McGibbon said her own leadership style has evolved over time in her role as chief partner officer."I like to set clear objectives for the team, but I think you also have to be empathetic to everyone's life situation as well," she said. "Obviously, as the mum of three boys under 10, life can be very hectic."Being a parent has probably made me a better leader as well because you're able to empathise with people's different life situations."McGibbon said she has a very diverse team in terms of ages and ethnicities, which requires her to be "aware" that when leading there is a common goal."The exciting part is that the goals, from a partner perspective, are endorsed from the board and they're coming down, so everybody is on that journey together. We are super lucky to be a part of it," she added.